Termite-inspired robots build structures without central command

Simple guidelines keep machines hauling and placing bricks

BUILDER BOT This building robot uses a forklift-style arm to hoist foam bricks onto its back and three-pronged wheel-legs to trek around a construction site. An onboard computer “brain” helps the bot navigate and make building decisions independently.

Courtesy of Eliza Grinnell/Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Using just a few preprogrammed rules, some traffic laws and a stack of foam bricks, the bots get busy building towers, pyramids and fortresslike walls, Harvard computer scientist Justin Werfel and colleagues report in the Feb. 14 Science.

One day, such robotic builders might be able to take on risky human jobs, such as building sandbag levees during floods. And like a termite or ant colony that gets stepped on, Werfel says, “it doesn’t matter if some of the robots are lost — the rest will keep going.”

Termites are architects of the insect world. The itty bitty animals paste together dirt and chewed-up bits of wood to build mansion-style mounds, with open chimneys and

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